Jesus Christ in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

LITERATURE Jesus Christ: The Founder of the Christian religion; the promised Messiah and Saviour of the world; the Lord and Head of the Christian church. I. The Names. 1. Jesus: (Iesous) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Joshua" (yehoshua`), meaning "Yahweh is salvation." It stands therefore in the Septuagint and Apocrypha for "Joshua," and in Acts 7:45 and Heb 4:8 likewise represents the Old Testament Joshua; hence, in the Revised Version (British and American) is in these passages rendered "Joshua." In Mt 1:21 the name as commanded by the angel to be given to the son of Mary, "for it is he that shall save his people from their sins" (see below on "Nativity"). It is the personal name of the Lord in the Gospels and the Acts, but generally in the Epistles appears in combination with "Christ" or other appellative (alone in Rom 3:26; 4:24; 1 Cor 12:3; 2 Cor 11:4; Phil 2:10; 1 Thess 4:14; Heb 7:22; 10:19, etc.). 2. Christ: (Christos) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Messiah" (mashiach; compare in the New Testament, Jn 1:41; 4:25, "Messiah"), meaning "anointed" (see MESSIAH). It designates Jesus as the fulfiller of the Messianic hopes of the Old Testament and of the Jewish people. It will be seen below that Jesus Himself made this claim. After the resurrection it became the current title for Jesus in the apostolic church. Most frequently in the Epistles He is called "Jesus Christ," sometimes "Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1,2,39; 1 Cor 1:2,30; 4:15; Eph 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:4,28 the King James Version; 1 Thess 2:14, etc.), often "Christ" alone (Rom 1:16 the King James Version; Rom 5:6,8; 6:4,8,9; 8:10, etc.). In this case "Christ" has acquired the force of a proper name. Very frequently the term is associated with "Lord" (kurios)- -"the (or "our") Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 11:17; 15:11 the King James Version; Acts 16:31 the King James Version; Acts 20:21; 28:31; Rom 1:7; 5:1,11; 13:14; 1 Cor 16:23, etc.)...